Not that I came only to drink their tea for free, but tea invitations are common in Bangladesh and no payment is allowed by the "guest to my country". The staccato questions might be repetitive: "Your country?", "Your name?", "Your job?", "You married?", "Why not?", "How many brothers and sisters?", "You like cricket?", but the gratitude and pleasure on the faces for friendly replies, return questions and idle chit-chat - and the free tea - is more than enough for me and for them.
Wander the markets especially beyond the big cities and all and sundry will come to shake your hand. Stop for tea and you will soon have a small crowd and many addresses of new friends. You might be shown around and be formally introduced to some of the biggest shopkeepers, their lively assistants and even to the few shy young ladies working in the more upmarket shops. Ever wanted to feel like a film star? Bangladesh is your chance!
In the capital Dhaka my day starts with some excitement. In the leafy Gulshan suburb, a group of young men wielding axes and knives run towards a smart car with a slick-looking occupant, who bizarrely steps out to meet them. Then they all stop with axes in mid-air and look at the cameraman. I am witnessing a scene from a brand-new Bengali film and the smooth dude with the flowing long hair and shades is a well-known film star. Yet some locals tell me that he is not quite as popular as his rivals from India's "Bollywood" filmmaking fraternity.
The rest of the day I get lost in the chaotic streets and markets of the old city near the river (actually nearly everywhere in Bangladesh is near a river). I have to ask directions five times in a few hundred metres simply to find a small but beautiful mosque - ancient alleyways are hard to navigate even if your map is good. I need help! But even the rickshaw gets lost on the way back to the hotel, and after endless detouring I can eventually show him the way.
Visiting Bangladesh is less about specific highlights, than about enjoying your way to them. You have several methods - a "rickshaw" is like a large tricycle with a back seat and a poor man who speaks no English pedalling. Velo-traffic jams abound! A "baby-taxi" is the same with an engine and space to squeeze extra passengers in next to the driver. A "normal" taxi? Very rare beyond the Sheraton Hotel, Dhaka. A "minibus" is a three-quarter length big bus built for thirty, usually seating forty with twenty more standing. A "direct" bus leaves when all seats are full and then spends half the journey shouting "direct Khulna" (or where-ever we are going) to fill up the aisle, and the last half of the journey disgorging passengers that bluffed their way onto the "direct" bus. Between stops the driver speeds along on roads filled by endless numbers of the previous modes of transport. Rickshaws especially are scarily overtaken as there are other, oncoming, buses.
Possibly the bus journey ends at a ferry before the town - there is always water in the way. There are numerous river-crossing ferries for cars and passengers and other boats of all shapes and sizes that follow rivers along. For three hours I enjoyed one with no seats apart from the boat's edge. Endless buckets of water were being thrown overboard yet were constantly refilling from below...
The "rocket" is a real Bangladesh highlight. You take twenty-four hours - much faster than the small craft - on this Mississippi-style steamer for a roundabout journey that would take only six hours by direct bus. Yet the choice between them is easy once you have seen the comfortable cabins - in the Bangladesh context - of 1st class or even at half price 2nd class on the back deck, with the world passing by leisurely rather than with a maniac bus driver. You could try lower deck class for less comfort but more life, with live chickens and dead fish being traded on this floating bazaar.
Next destination is Chittagong - what a lovely name - for a 5am arrival. I find a hotel for a few hours sleep and then venture out into the hot 9am sun. An eerie silence greets me as shops are barred closed and just a few beggars stare at me from the gutter. I turn into a sidestreet where a shock awaits: flies and a pervasive stench everywhere, blood flows down the street, the crows fight over intestines, a fly-covered severed head stares at me from a pool of blood. Men with bloody shirts are brandishing long knives. Don't worry, this is not Armageddon, only Eid-ul-Azha, the Islamic Festival of Sacrifice. All families that can afford it, slaughter a cow or at least a goat for themselves and the poor. The result is a whole city covered in blood.
Time to find a more relaxed place: Cox's Bazaar is the local favourite beach resort. Not quite as relaxed as I hoped. Thousands gather daily to enjoy the sunset with a drink of coconut or coca-cola on the longest beach in the world. In spite of many insistent Bangladeshi requests there is no real way of capturing this proud fact adequately on my small camera.
I head off pretty soon for even less hectic waters to the southernmost tip of the country to catch the morning "ferry" - a wooden boat with a very noisy engine and too many passengers - to St Martins Island. This coral reef island is in fact the start of Southeast Asia nearer to Myanmar (Burma) than Bangladesh. The only real beach stop on my journey is a bit of paradise at a relaxed pace. This is where a select few of the more adventurous urban crowd let their hair (or is it their beards?) down. I choose the local peak season by chance, making life here not quite as laid-back as the other fifty weeks of the year. But this gives me a chance to watch the local city slickers walking the beach in Nike caps and brand name shirts, drinking tea, smuggled Myanmar beer and cheap whiskey. Then it's off to a fish meal in one of the restaurant shacks on the beach. The wallpaper is made of calendars featuring Islamic leaders interspersed with traditionally dressed ladies with just a tiny hint of something seductive. Welcome to tourism Bangladeshi style!
The only guidebook entirely dedicated to the country is the surprisingly detailed and extensive Lonely Planet guide to Bangladesh.
The Bangladesh/North-Eastern India map by Nelles at 1:1,500,000 gives a good feel for topography of this water-rich country and is detailed enough for travelling.
The colourful Bangladesh map at 1:1,000,000 by The Mappa shows towns and administrative boundaries very clearly.
The The Mappa Dhaka city guide map rivals any of the Indian subcontinent. The Gulshan area which houses embassies and larger formal businesses is particularly clearly mapped.
Author: Gerhard Buttner
Date: 1 July 2002